United States v. Burton

Facts

Two men tried to rob a bank in Texas. After not being able to enter the bank vault, the two men left the bank, threatening to blow the place up but leave a shoe box of road flares. A witness outside the bank saw the two men leave the bank and enter a parked blue car that was driven away by a third man. The car found soon after abandoned with the motor running outside of a car wash. The vehicle belonged to Quinton Carr. The next day, Carr called the police to report that his car was stolen. The evidence suggested the car was abandoned, not stolen because the keys were inside and there was no evidence of hot wiring.

Testimony from Christopher Spooner identified that Wilton Burton spent the night at his apartment, the day before the robbery and left that morning with Carr. He also testified that two weeks earlier, Wilton and Carr were speaking generally about robberies and that Carr told him he was going to call a false police report for his missing car.

Carr’s girlfirned, Rita Gwen testified that the day of the robbery Carr picked her up in a cream colored lexus, before the time of the robbery and dropped her off around 1:00PM. He then picked her back up in the same car at 3:00PM (half hour after the robbery). She also stated that he filed a police report for his missing vehicle that night.